Teaching good values to new generations is often easier said than done, because it takes time and dedication amidst an ever changing society in which new rules are being made everyday  as to how we define morality.

We have so many outside influences  that we would never have imagined possible when I was a child in the sixties.  The entertainment industry with all the movies, television , video games and music are literally raising our children for us , and the sad part is many parents are allowing it . Many themselves  were not taught proper values  because the Me generation of parents raised in the sixties and seventies were short changed.  Both parents started working, women’s lib  became a household word and while post Vietnam children became parents, their reference point for values and what represented a good life somehow got lost in material things, money, spiritual intolerance and a blatant disrespect for marriage and families. We rapidly turned into a throw away self centered society.

What are moral values? To name a few: kindness, honesty, courage, self-discipline, compassion, generosity, dependability and integrity.  I was always taught that to instill these kinds of values in children will help lay the foundation for them to become good citizens, good parents and to shield them from negative societal influences.

It really doesn’t matter how we label morality or how we view the world, honesty is honesty, integrity is integrity , compassion is godly, and service is unselfish…you get the point!  The world and universe has a way of bringing it to justice if we choose to think it doesn’t matter.  When we live as if there are no moral rules, our lives become harder to navigate, our emotions more painful and life more difficult to live.  Our spirits will always demand that we come back to the center of decency of character, or we will simply suffer the consequences.

If we can teach our youth how to navigate this world with moral integrity, we give them the armor they need to face most of the moral conundrums that they will certainly be faced with in this life. If we don’t teach them, society will certainly fill the void and that void will always produce undesirable outcomes.

One of the most important things we can do is to model good values. In other words actions certainly do speak louder than words. If you want your children to exhibit values like honesty, then you need to show these qualities yourself.

I am continually shocked at what is going on in the political arena and how so many people think it’s no big deal to see a candidate like Hillary Clinton with her terrible history of dishonesty and self centered motives for power and money  and still think she would make a good leader.

What are we teaching our children? It’s okay to be dishonest? It’s okay to be intolerant of people?  It’s okay to use others for the sake of your  financial wealth?  What are we saying if we turn a blind eye to these things, yet we tell our youth the opposite?  It is morally wrong to endorse someone  you know has shown such careless behavior for the sake of power. It’s a big discrepancy between what you say and what you do, if your kids know that just once you can make an exception for someone who is completely void of a moral compass.

Talk about the candidates and what you value about their positions and what you don’t like about them and why it is important that you are voting for them. Including them in the conversation  is a good way to teach them to be careful and to value their country enough to care about who becomes the leader. But before that, you need to teach them about the qualities that make a good leader.

If you teach you children that they are accountable for their behavior and mistakes yet do not hold  accountable those you vote for, what are you teaching them?  Good communication is the bottom line as you try to lead them to a point where they are capable of making good moral choices in their life. It all takes time, because building a good human being that can make good choices, contribute to society and pass the baton to another generation is a noble and worthy calling.  Our nations future, our children, is our most valuable asset.  None of us will live forever and leaving an honorable trust worthy generation is the best footprint we can leave behind.